The Heart of the House

the long version

Set against a background of Yorkshire and Bournemouth, its characters are Drake Marsden, son of a prosperous solicitor in a Yorkshire country town, estate agent to Sir Robert Maudesley, an autocratic but impoverished landowner who treats him badly. Drake's sister Edith and Maudesley's son and heir Sholto are secretly in love, though they both know that Sir Robert expects Sholto to marry wealth and set the estate on its feet again. The story tells of Edith's act of sacrifice and the subsequent coming into her life of Bill Gollantz, and of Drake's love for Flora Willis, who runs a pub.